Hardships of the Heart
by TheJadeDragon37
Summary: Sequel to Keyblade of the Heart. For almost a year has Darkness rested. However, as our heroes lived happily, the tendrils planted the seeds for the budding conflict. The end of a world at Maleficent's hands sends our heroes, both old and new, hurdling into what they believe to be their final clash. But can we really be sure nothing more lurks in the shadows?


**(A/N): **Alright for those of you who are ready, we've got the next story in my Heart series. Those of you who have bothered to read Eight Months of boredom know that I'm not doing it alone this time. So allow me to introduce to you all, The Unknowing Herald.

Herald: Well, good to be here Jade. And yes, I took my crazy pills this time. Alright, for those of you who never read my stuff before, don't worry, mine and Jade's styles are actually pretty similar, so no major changes there or in the plot delivery. If anything, it can only get better. Two-heads work better than one right? Oh, and by better, I mean it has... nah, you'll see soon enough.

Jade: We do hit the ground running this time. Not so much the slow build that you might be used to. You know, I really don't have much to say. I think the chapter will speak for itself.

Herald: That it will. Now, enjoy Jade's first colab! Oh, and do remember to leave a review... lazy bums.

Jade: You heard the man, do it. Or I'll sick Mika on you all.

Herald: Mer too!

Chapter 1

Shooting Star

Summer vacation was here and the inhabitants of Destiny Islands knew it. Only a few days had passed since the end of the school year so the adults of the island were still getting used to the presence of teens and children running around in the middle of the day. Now the shops, arcades, and beaches were littered with the freed kids. Of course not only the once school going kids were ecstatic about summer vacation. Their parents were happy to have their children back with them, or in the case of a certain blonde haired woman, she was just happy to have the house populated during the day. Mika sat on the couch with Roxas and Naminé just watching some television. For some reason summer was filled with reruns the new stuff not coming till the fall when everyone went back to school. It was ten in the morning and Mika was adjusting to the fact that there were four other people in the house now that school was over. No more lounging around the house in who-cares-what while she waited for the time to pass for her to go to work. It was bugging Mika that the entire house already seemed to be falling into a rut. They woke up, watched T.V., went outside, then went to their rooms. If it wasn't for the chore list changing daily then it'd be the same thing every day and it was driving Mika crazy, well crazier.

Being the loose cannon that she is Mika couldn't sit around and let the people in the house sit around doing nothing. There was only one sure fire cure for such boredom, a beach party. Not just any beach party, the mother of all beach parties! No screw that, the GRANDMOTHER of all beach parties. They needed to celebrate the fact that they were free from school with a little more than what they currently were doing. Mika glanced over at the two blondes sitting on the room's other couch. Naminé was nestled up against Roxas her head resting on his shoulder with her legs up on the couch as they watched the overly large screen. They did look quite cute sitting there together like that but they didn't seem to be having much fun.

"Naminé I fixed your dress for you," Luna said as she entered the living room. The raven haired girl had a sewing needle sticking out of the corner of her mouth. She held up a plain white sundress to show her handiwork, you couldn't spot where the rip had been. Naminé got up off the couch and headed over to Luna to look at her work. "I know Sol's a stick in the mud when it comes to using magic, but honestly feel free to stitch clothing together with it. I swear you and Roxas come to me with ripped clothes every other day."

"Even with magic I can't get it to look this good. If you'd just teach me how." Naminé took the dress from Luna with a pleading look.

"I learned from trial and error, so can you." Luna placed her sewing needle in Naminé's hand and left the room. Sequel

It'd come out not long after Naminé decided she wanted to decorate the living room that Luna knew how to sew. Ever since then Naminé had been using the older woman in her attempts to add "personality" to the house. The once white room was now painted a soft yellow, almost still white. She had commissioned Luna into making a large set of faded orange drapes for the windows. Both couches were a red color, soft and faded just like the rest of the room. Naminé had done some research about interior design during the school year and gone for what she called a "warm color scheme". Mika couldn't complain, the colors that Naminé had chosen made the living room feel like a really great place to sit back and relax, it was like the soft colors sucked all the extra energy out of you. The game room was bright fun colors that seemed to fill everyone with energy when they entered the room. Somehow Naminé knew just what colors were perfect for reflecting what the room was used for.

_If I'm going to throw the grandmother of all parties I'm going to need someone with an eye for color._ Mika thought to herself as Naminé came and sat back down next to her boyfriend, tossing the dress over the back of the couch. _Though what are those two doing that Luna needs to sew up their clothes that often? Right, party._ Mika shook her head to clear her thoughts and focus back on what she was originally planning_. I've seen Luna make a few outfits for Brother, she's got a good enough eye when it comes to color, I should rope her into this helping me with this party._ Then Mika remembered how much strife she caused her brother's girlfriend. Luna probably wouldn't do her any favors without Mika twisting her arm someway. Best way to twist Luna's arm was to get Sol to convince her to do it. _If I'm bringing Brother into the fold then I should see if I can get him to cook, wonder where he picked up those cookin' skills._

Mika tossed the remote over to Roxas attempting to hit him on the head with it, see if he was paying attention or not. Much to Mika's disappointment Roxas caught the remote without so much as a twitch of his eye. Not a one of them was skipping out on training during the eight months since Eclipse's defeat. No matter how calm things appeared here on Destiny Islands, they all knew they could be called out to fight the next big threat at any moment. Maleficent was still out there gathering her strength and getting ready to attack the worlds at any moment. With her army of Heartless and Nobodies she would make a formidable foe, no matter how powerful or weak she was.

Leaving the two blondes alone to do whatever, Mika set off to find her brother. At this time of day Sol was probably in his room pouring over some books in either the name of research of for fun. Heading upstairs Mika knocked on the door to her brother's room; that he shared with Luna. Mika felt like a fifth wheel living in the house sometimes being the only single girl but she was proud of her brother for having the guts to sleep in the same room as his girlfriend. It took a lot to share a living space with another person. A wooden sign hung on the door with the occupant's names carved into it to prevent any confusion about who lived in what room. Mika had forgone the sign and painted her name in bright orange on the door, it wasn't her if it didn't stand out.

The door open and Mika glanced at her brother, his clothes were a mess along with his hair. There were bags under his golden eyes and he generally looked ready to fall over if a strong breeze passed by. Mika's question on whether Sol was researching or reading recreationally was answered by his appearance, he was reading for fun. He had probably found a new series that he just had to read and was staying up through the night to get it all done. Mika spotted Luna sitting at a desk over Sol's shoulder, she had another article of clothing laid in her lap and Mika could see a spool of thread on the table next to her. Mika grinned, they were both exactly where she wanted them to be.

"Brother, I have an awesome idea and I need you and your wife's help," Mika teased. She couldn't resist calling Luna his wife, they both got flustered. As normal Mika didn't wait for a response from Sol and headed right into his room pushing him in along with her. Magic closed the door behind them and Mika added a layer of soundproofing magic to it so no one could listen in. While there wasn't a real chance of the two downstairs coming up to listen in Mika didn't take chances.

"Mika get out of our room, just because you knocked it doesn't it give you the right to barge on in here," Luna growled.

_No quips. Asking her a favor._ Mika did her best to not say anything back to anger Luna. Even she knew that when you wanted to ask someone a favor you don't start off by getting them angry. It was just so easy and so much fun to do with Luna.

"Wow, no remarks?" Sol observed. "You really want our help don't you?"

"I thought that once you all got out of school the house would be a bit more lively. It's as quiet as ever around here. So I was thinking why not have a beach party to get everyone into a happier mood?" Mika looked at the both of them with hope clearly written on her face. Sol and Luna shared a look with each other before answering:

"What do you want us to do?" If they hadn't done it so often already Mika would have been creped out by how they said that in unison so perfectly.

"Luna, I need a girl to help plan out the colors and all the frilly things that make it a party. Sol, party needs food." Mika explained as her mind drifted off into thinking about what she could do to make the party even better. "I'll handle all the music and advertising so you two won't have to worry about that."

"What do you mean you need 'a girl' for the decorations? Aren't you a girl?" Luna asked pointing to Mika's chest that clearly marked her as one of the female gender.

"I'm a tomboy, good looking tomboy mind you," Mika said plainly, "I don't do girly stuff. Anyway I was thinking it should be a large party with as many people as possible to really get things going." Sol raised his eyebrow in question at how he was expected to provide food for that many people. "Calm down Brother, you're in charge of food. Never said you have to make it all. Buy some snacks and make a few special things. There damn well better be some peppermint sweets there if you value your life." Unlike most girls that seemed to have a love of all things chocolate Mika had a love affair with peppermint. There was no safe place in the house to store the sweets either, she was better than a bloodhound when it came to finding them.

"Fine, so how long do we have before you want to have this thing?" Sol asked as he materialized a pen and paper to jot down ideas for what to bring.

"Two days from now? We're pretty handy with magic, shouldn't be too hard to get everything done in time should it," Mika stated rather than asked. "Oh, most important thing, our friends can't know we're the ones doing this. They'd want to help and this party is partly for them."

"Agreed, and honestly they'd get in our way if we're magically setting this up." Sol continued to write down things as he spoke. "Their combat magic has improved but I haven't spent time teaching the grey magics." Grey magic was the type of magic you found most magical folks using at home. It was the same type of magic that Merlin used to pull an entire house's worth of furniture out of a single bag. Sol had deemed it impractical to teach since they were getting ready for a fight and promised to teach the Keybearers grey magic once they were finished with Maleficent. That hadn't stopped Luna and Mika from teaching them a few of the basic grey spells. Luna taught them out of a sense of duty while Mika taught them for the sheer hell of it. Everyone should know how to magically make a pop appear from the fridge into your hand.

"Okay then. I'll talk with Kairi's dad about using the beach we always seem to be on for the party. Stupid laws, if it wasn't for Sora and Riku going bananas right after we came back with their little fight show we wouldn't have to get permission to use it." Mika crossed her arms and continued to grumble as she left the room.

"Didn't Mika support the fight?" Luna asked Sol as the blonde girl left.

"Don't even try to understand what goes on in her mind. There's only been one person who could successfully do it," Sol reminded Luna.

Mika headed back downstairs and went out the front door. It was a normal day for Destiny Islands, meaning the sun was shining brightly and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Other worlds would kill to have a day as nice as this average one. Heading down the road Mika let her feet take her to City Hall so she could talk with Kairi's dad. He was one of the few people that knew Mika's true origins, along with Roxas, Naminé, Sol, Luna's of course. Many people speculated that the five of them came from another world but with no real proof many believed the lie that they came from another island. It was the fact that the Mayor knew about them that Mika had gotten a job at a local bar and now that she was going to be allowed to have this party. After all who wanted to piss off a person who could reduce you to cinders with a flick of her wrist. Mika had never threatened the man but she had seen that fear in many people's eyes before.

The City Hall of the nearby islands was exactly what you would think a City Hall would look like. A big white building with columns and just by looking at it and its well-kept garden you could tell the place was important. Mika had only been inside twice but she had to walk by the place on her way to work every day, which reminded her she would need to ask for the party day off when she went to work tonight. Walking up the, guess what, white steps Mika headed in through a pair of large glass doors. Inside City Hall was a bustling hub of people all dressed up in suits. Mika felt the sudden urge to throw up, business casual was far too boring for her. That's why she was in sandals, short-shorts, and a tank top. Heading over to the "Welcome" counter, no joke, there was a big welcome sign above it with an arrow pointing down to the deskclerk. A red haired female desk clerk. Sliding over to the desk Mika leaned in and looked the woman up and down not hiding the fact that she was clearly checking her out.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked in an annoyed tone. Her annoyance wasn't directed a Mika per say, just at the next person that she was forced to help who happened to be Mika.

"Your phone number, no wait. I need to see the Mayor. Tell him that it's Mika Adamas here to see him." Mika smiled playfully at the desk clerk. Red hair should be outlawed on fully grown women. The red haired woman picked up the phone and opened a line to the mayor's office and after a few short exchanges the woman pointed Mika in the direction of the office. "You know, I'll take that phone number actually." Rolling her eyes the desk clerk held up her left hand to show Mika a diamond ring. "Whoops. Sorry ignore me." Mika high tailed it away from the welcome desk and down the halls towards the mayor's office.

His secretary was, a wisp of a man, and once Mika announced who she was he let her into the office. The office was fairly large since it belonged to the mayor of the islands. A large window let light in from behind the mahogany desk. Paper were stacked dangerously high on the desk, the only other thing visible on it a photo. Sitting at the desk was a tall man by Destiny Island standards, 5'9", with curly black hair and hazel eyes. He looked like he had spent his entire life behind a desk, no muscle mass to speak of but he wasn't fat at least so he had to have kept active.

"Heya Mayor," Mika sat in a chair on the opposite side of the desk,

"Good afternoon Mika," the mayor sighed. He had long ago given up on trying to get Mika to call him by his name. For her he was always Mayor or Kairi's Dad. "What can I do for you today?" The strain in his voice hinted that he knew whatever she was going to ask was going to be a pain for him.

"Simple. Just need you to let me throw a party on that island, the one Riku and Sora fought on, two days from now. My family will supply everything and clean it all up afterwards no problems." Mika might have been lying about her cleaning up afterwards but Sol and Luna would do it out of a sense of right.

"That's it? Why do you want to throw a party?" the mayor asked.

"Cause the four bums in my house are exactly that, bums. They don't do anything and I'm hoping a party will kick some life into them. A house party won't do, needs to be something bigger and with more people." If the mayor knew Mika more than just as an acquaintance he would be worried about what she meant by "bigger" but thankfully for everyone he didn't know Mika better.

"Alright Mika. I'll give you permission provided that you do what you said and clean up afterwards."

Mika grinned in such a way that the mayor was instantly worried about just what kind of party this woman was planning on throwing. With a goodbye and thank you Mika headed out to go and spread the word that there was going to be a beach party in two days time. Destiny Islands was hit with a wave of excitement that only grew as the two days passed.

_Day of the Party._

Naminé was in her room getting ready for the beach party. Sol, Luna, and Mika had already left to go and scope out what they had to offer and see if they needed help setting up. If it wasn't for Sol and Luna dragging Mika out of the house Naminé would have thought something was up. Naminé tossed a pair of denim shorts out of her dresser and onto her bed finally picking those to go over the bottom half of her swimsuit. Both Naminé and Kairi had bought a few swimsuits over the course of the school year always sticking to the newer trend, or setting it. While Kairi wore nothing but her swimsuit Naminé preferred to wear shorts and a tanktop over it to cover herself up some. While she was assured by many people, Mika and Roxas included, that she quite the looker Naminé felt more comfortable covered up. Slipping into her pale blue tanktop and her denim shorts Naminé headed out of her room to find Roxas standing across from her room. He had on a pair of black trunks with flames at the bottoms of the legs.

"Ready Naminé? Party starts in ten." Roxas walked over and wrapped his arm around Naminé and pulled her away from the door not giving her the chance to change her mind and head back in to change.

"I'm ready Roxas." Naminé giggled as she walked alongside him.

The young couple headed in the direction of Kairi's house to meet up with her, Sora, Riku and Selphie. Riku and Selphie were still dating and even Naminé was a bit impressed that they were getting along as well as they did. Riku's reserved nature seemed to lessen when he was around the hyper banana known as Selphie, the girl was always wearing some yellow. When they reached Kairi's house the four other members of the group were already outside waiting for them. Like Roxas the boys were wearing nothing but their swimming trunks whereas Kairi and Selphie were both wearing shorts and nothing over their bikini tops.

"There you two are!" Sora shouted when he spotted the two approaching. "We were going to leave without you here pretty soon!" The sounds of Sora's laughter echoed in the afternoon air.

"Like Kairi would let you leave without us!" Roxas shouted back.

"It was her idea!" Riku called back causing all six of them to start laughing.

"Where's the other three?" Kairi asked Naminé and Roxas when they reached the group.

"They went early to help set up they said. You should have seen the fight they had to do to get Mika to go along with them." Roxas winced as he remembered all the lightning, fire, and ice they had been flung throughout the house. A stray bolt had managed to snake its way to him and zap him on the butt.

"Well we should go and see them then shouldn't we?" Selphie said wrapping her arm around Riku's and pulling him towards the beach.

When they reached the rowboats they knew why the three Clestians had left early. There was a temporary land bridge connecting the main island to the smaller one. Considering how that hadn't been there yesterday and that it was made out of ice and stone it was fair to say that it was magically made. Standing at the entrance greeting everyone was none other than Mika, dressed in a black bikini. She was talking with a few people who were standing at the top of the bridge, they seemed a little afraid of the new walkway and Mika was assuring them that all was fine.

"Oi! About time you six showed up," Mika said when the group came up to her. Naminé inspected the bridge more closely now and she could feel some magic coming from off of it still. They were probably keeping it fueled so they could deconstruct it later without blowing it all up. "Just head on in and have some fun. There's a special trick around the island, you'll see it once you step foot on the beach." With a cryptic message like that Naminé worried about what Mika had done to the island. If Sol and Luna were part of the party plans though it couldn't be that bad, they would keep Mika in check.

Together the seven, Mika was done greeting people now that her friends were here, headed down the ice and stone walkway. Sure enough like Mika had said the second Naminé's foot touched down on the sand something happened. At first Naminé didn't notice until a warm breeze blew across her bare stomach. If you watched Naminé's face you could see her process the information. With a scream Naminé looked down at herself, both her shorts and tank-top had vanished.

"It's a beach party Naminé, swimsuit only." Mika laughed as she left the group to go and mingle with a group of unsuspecting women.

"Well Sora, any idea what we should do first?" Kairi asked her boyfriend, as if she already didn't know the answer. For his boyfriend was not interested in the girls, he wasn't interested in sunbathing, he wasn't interested in anything really. Just. One. Thing.

That food.

You see, Sora wasn't even there for more than a few seconds once Mika left them to their own devices. No, he simply vanished into thin air almost, so fast he was to get to the food table. Kairi giggled softly as she followed him. By the time she arrived, Sora had already more than she would in days. Croissants, sandwiches, chips. Name a snack, it was down. Seriously, Kairi was beginning to worry for herself if she ever had to sustain that eating behemoth… and she was blushing. Thinking of your married life with a boy that hasn't even proposed to you will do that to a girl. A gasp of Sora clued made her look out of curiosity.

"Cake… balls…" Sora whispered in the same way zombies mumbled for brains. He shambled like one too. It was… a confusing sight. Then, as if his primal instincts had kicked in, his eyes darted towards the one table at the center of it all, one littered with a dozen of varieties of Sol's specialty. Each of them with a different filling and coating, they laid there, impervious to the sun due to a reflect coating. And Sora was just about ready to destroy them round delicacies. Scratch that, he was already doing so. One after the other, Sora ate them without mercy. His mouth was full of cake balls in no time. All of which was more than amusing for Mika, whose smile could not be contained.

"Sora eating balls… this will serve as inspiration for many." She commented, getting a kick out of the unfortunate truth we have to accept. Moments later though, she became worried about Sora's speed and proficiency in ball-gobbling and had to interfere. "Save some of those for us you dumbus!" She exclaimed, grabbing Sora from behind and slowly pulling him away of the table. Sora tried to mumble and excuse, but of course, thought against it once the whispers reached his ears: "If I see you picking even one more, you'll be swallowing yours too…"

Sora gulped the rest of the cake balls immediately out of sheer fright, cold sweat trickling down his cheeks. It was like time had stopped for a few moments.

"Yo Sora! I was wondering where you were… guess it was just that obvious, right?!" Riku said as he arrived at the scene. Besides only wearing trunks, he had a pair of sunglasses on top of his head and a surfboard under his arm.

"Whatchu doing with that board Riku?" Mika questioned, letting go of traumatized Sora.

"Oh? This? I'm gonna get into that whole surfing tournament thing. Don't I look like someone who'd surf?" Mika's eyes told a different tale. She HAD made a surfing competition happen, but out of everyone, she expected Riku the less. Most of what she had seen of him was "serious, dark guy". Most. "You hurt me! They call me Broseidon! King of the Brocean! I'm gonna RULE this competition!"

"Is that a challenge I hear?" Mika questioned, amused by how corny Riku was sounding, but still having her competitiveness kindled by the teen.

"Oh, so you DO surf! Just ask Sol to look away during the competition, will ya?"

Play with fire Riku… and you may just get burned.

"Did Riku just antagonize Mika?" Kairi questioned Sora as she saw both leave towards the edge of the beach, both glaring with confidence and smugness towards each other.

"Well, guess we gotta watch it now." Sora told himself, just hoping for stuff not to escalate. Even for Sora Mika meant serious business when in that state.

Still, him and Kairi sat down on their usual tree, watching the surfers got at it. Roxas tried his hand at it, most likely to impress Naminé. Sora knew exactly how that was gonna end up. Dejá Vu took over once Roxas fumbled out of the board in the smallest wave, eating salt and almost swallowing a small fish. Roxas was Sora's Nobody… who sucked at surfing. One round and he was out.

Conversely, Riku was actually demolishing everyone in each round. He came out at first every time, he was even beating Mika. That's right. The "gnarly king of the waves" was living up to his self-appointed title.

Soon enough it was the moment of truth. The final round. Since Riku and Mika were one versus one, Sol took the liberty of making the waves extra big. Nigh-tsunami big. He claimed to be able to simply calm them down before they reached shore, so Luna and the others consented it, even with Kairi telling everyone to keep quiet about this to her father.

It was shocking for many to see how Mika struggled to even surf on her wave. The wave WAS above twenty meters tall and there was merit to not using magic at all to surf it, but at the end of the day, she struggled to stay on the board. Riku however? He was owning it. Zigzagging through the wave, doing handstands, backflipping, you name it. He was doing so good, he even spared the time to turn to the audience and posed. There was a very dangerous glint in the eyes of a certain blonde as he rubbed it in.

"Always the showoff… Hey, what's that?!" Kairi exclaimed, far too late. Riku had just run right into a freaking ICEBERG. How did it get there? Everyone could swear it hadn't been there moments before… Well, while many didn't make the connection for a long time, this girl certainly did. Mika looked far less shocked than she was satisfied.

"What?" Mika asked once Kairi had made the whole way down after Sora had to jump into the sea to get his unconscious friend.

"You KNOW what!" Kairi exclaimed, pointing a very accusatory finger at the blonde seductress.

"I organized this. And I say there is NOTHING in the rules against icebergs," she wasn't even trying to hide it by this point… "Welp, pretty boy's down. Who's up from some volleyball?!" Mika exclaimed, leading a large group of people into the open court. Kairi could swear she whispered: "Time to see'em bounce." And really, that wouldn't be a surprise.

The day passed quite quickly between all of the different diversions the beach party offered, and besides Riku, who was still pretty much out of the game, everyone got a surprising amount of enjoyment out of it. Things were starting to wind down as the night took over the islands, but there was still a campfire going, the usual sharing of stories over marshmallows being part of the course.

Everyone was sitting around the campfire except Sora and Kairi, who had returned to the poor tree, sitting on it and absorbing the skies' beauty.

"Today was a blast, wasn't it Kai?" Sora asked with a wide grin on his face, turning to see an unexpectedly gloomy girl.

"Yes… it was. But is it really okay for us to be here?" Kairi asked, Sora tilting his head to the side in confusion. "Maleficent is out there somewhere. And we're in here, partying and sleeping the days off!"

"Look, Kairi…" Sora began, Kairi's eyes not used to seeing such a serene expression on the teen. "Mickey promised us he'd contact us the moment Maleficent did something iffy. We can't do anything right now. We don't know where she is, and worrying won't help us. We can just live the way we wanna live for now. Besides, this is what we always wanted ever since the start, isn't it? A time of peace, where we could be ourselves, not some inter-galatical superheroes." It took a moment for Kairi to process that it was REALLY Sora saying this. He looked… almost wise. He sounded wise. Not that his vision was ground-breaking. It was just right. She smiled at her boyfriend and pecked him on the lips.

"You know, for a moment there, I almost forgot you're my lazy bum," she still found it extremely entertaining how, a year later, Sora still fumbled backwards and almost off the tree with a simple peck. He was still good ol' Sora.

"Well… y-yeah. What? Did you think I would have broken my promise? I'm not about to change!" Sora exclaimed proudly, Kairi biting the bottom of her lip as he mentioned that promise. It felt so childish now…

"Sora… care to make another promise?" she asked, surprising him a bit with how straightforward she was being. "It's just that… I realized something. I don't want you to stay the same. I'd love to see you stay the same, but that isn't up to me to force. You just have to be you. The only thing that I want is for us to be together. Can you promise that?" she asked. Sora smiled warmly but cut eye-contact. He began scratching the back of his head, not wanting to say what he had to:

"I can't promise that Kai…" the disappointment on the air was palpable. But both knew it to be true. There was a storm coming. And some may not come out. "However, we CAN wish for it!" Sora suddenly exclaimed. His eyes had caught something rare, but perfect flying to their left. Kairi looked at him quizzically, and Sora explained: "Look over there! A shooting star! Let's wish for us to be together. You know what they say about stars!"

"Sora, that's so unbelievably childish…" Kairi began, but then remembered the Paopu fruit. "But… oh well, it worked the last time. Fine, let's do it!" she exclaimed, grabbing Sora's hand and closing her eyes. They sat there, both their hearts crying out to whatever greater will there was in the heavens that they would ever need to be torn apart, all of this during minutes on end. They only opened their eyes to stare directly into each other's eyes… for mere moments that is.

"Sora! Kairi! Look out!" they heard Sol exclaim. They instinctively looked around and with that same instinct jumped away as bright light shot past them, crashing into the ocean.

"Was that the…" Sora began, looking at Kairi in awe.

"…Shooting star?!" Kairi exclaimed, both of them quickly jumping out of the small elevation and into the beach. By then a crowd already had amassed near the place where it had fallen, just far enough to be relatively safe. They were at the beach, and the shallow water where it had fallen shone in a dim, golden light. It took mere moments for it to dim though, leaving behind what seemed to be nothing less than a human. Sora, in all his extremely reckless but heroic self, rushed through the shallow waters, forcing Kairi and Roxas, along with Naminé to run after him instinctively. The object was indeed a human… a girl near their age. Her hair was a curly, pale blonde, drifting away at the mercy of the currents, tied in a ponytail by a red and pink floral ribbon. Her bikini, do remember what Mika's barrier did, was on the exact same vein, a simple red two piece adorned with multi-colored flowers, a lavender sash wrapped around her waist. She measured about what Kairi did, maybe a bit less, around 1.60 meters tall, her skin was pale and her frame was skinny, she looked like she could break at any moment, fragile as a porcelain doll. Sora knew what they had to do at that point. Her eyes weren't opening, but with a quick check from Nami, their go-to-healer, they found no real damage to her body. She was either in shock or tired, for her eyes refused to open. In any case, they both were determined to get her out of there and into a bed. Mika's house was quite full by this time, so Kairi simply took her to her house. They were used to having girls that fell from the sky sleep in there.

The night passed with murmurs of what had happened running through the town. This hadn't been the first occurrence, but for our heroes, they knew damn well what it probably meant. They just prayed for it not to be so. Their question were to be answered sooner than they thought, as Kairi called them back to their house at around ten AM, claiming the girl to have awoken.

Once the group arrived, Kairi lead them to her room, where the girl stared intently at the mirror. Her clothing had changed, of course, as the effects of the spell had worn off and she was now wearing a very unconventional sleeveless red dress with floral patterns drawn into it followed by two matching long red gloves that covered most of her arms, several different sashes around her waist, and a whitish cape, also patterned over flowers. Her legs were covered by patterned white tights, and red and gold high-heeled boots, her ears finally being adorned by silver earrings where two red rubies were lodged.

She seemed unaware at their arrival, she would just mumble.

"T-Te…rra…" before she realized she had company. Jolting backwards and covering her chest with her hands, she quickly apologized with a bow: "I'm sorry… I didn't see you there."

"Don't worry about it cutie. I'm more worried as to why you were looking at the mirror, spelling words. Anything wrong?" Mika asked, not wanting to prod into her situation as she came there more than she should.

"I… I just… my name. It was just so hazy…" the girl replied, the group taking a step back as they realized they had just rescued an amnesiac. This would surely gimp any help they could get into realizing what had happened to this girl.

"Look, I don't want to prod too much, but we want to help you, and we can't do it unless you share with us everything you can remember." Sol pointed out, always the cold, logic-comes-first one. No matter how rude Sora, Kairi and Roxas perceived him to be, the girl nodded in return, understanding the situation.

"I... my name is Terra… Bra-Branford," she began, clutching to her head just for her surname. Luna released a chuckle at her first name, but Sol, being the only one to know why, stomped her foot. "I can't remember much of what happened yesterday. I was just tending to dinner for my mother as she returned home when… I…" she cringed, falling to her knees and exhaling deeply. "Darkness. I remember only that. I can see a shadow of someone else… no, more than one. The-they seemed to find an interest in me… but before they could get to me, my chest exploded in light and… I can only remember my body flying away from my town and losing consciousness…" she was sweating all over, clutching to her head. Everyone looked at Naminé, but she found it better not to force her memories out. Especially with how obvious this made stuff.

"It's Maleficent." Naminé deadpanned. Everyone agreed to it, but no one said anything.

"It's… about time really. Not that I'm happy, but I was getting worried about what Maleficent would do in so much time," Mika said, the group agreeing with her.

"What do we do now though?" Sora questioned.

"We go to Mickey. He has to know about this… if he does, well, there may be additional info. Either way, we have to talk with the King." Sol proposed, receiving a collective nod in return.

Seeing how Terra had no idea what they were talking about, Kairi reached out to Terra, kneeling to her side and explaining: "Your world fell to darkness… it's been sealed away into the Realm of Darkness… I'm sorry…" to her surprise, Terra replied:

"I know… someone had warned me about what may happen to worlds when the Darkness takes over them." Well, this was unexpected. There were more people breaking the world order?

"Well then, just know we may have a better place for you to stay. King Mickey is a kind ruler, he'll give you somewhere to live until we solve this issue, okay?" Terra's eyes were of confusion when Kairi said so:

"Solve it?" Sora grinned and replied:

"Destiny Islands also got swallowed up by the Darkness once. We got it back, along with most worlds! We'll just beat up Maleficent's rear and get your world back, no problem!" he exclaimed childishly. Still, this was enough to restore some shine to Terra's violet eyes, the girl nodding in response. "Okay, who's ready for a trip to Disney Castle?!"

Then, the door shot open. At that precise spot now stood Riku, his face, shoulders, and everything on the front of his body sunburnt while his back was simply white.

"I am going to END you guys!" he exclaimed as the group realized they had left him stranded on the beach by himself in a corner ever since he hit his head on the iceberg. Everyone, even Terra laughed at the deplorable sight that was now Riku.

No matter the situation, it was never too late to laugh.


End file.
